Crystal Palace are considering sacking Oliver Glasner after his fresh criticism of the club’s transfer policy and players.
The manager said he does not have time to integrate January signings into his system and claimed that some players are thinking about possible transfers this summer. Glasner had previously picked a fight with the club over their transfer dealings and the timing of player sales last month, and has already said he will not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the season.
Palace supporters turned on Glasner after a 1-1 draw away to Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Zrinjski Mostar in the first leg of their Conference League play-off on Thursday, extending their dismal run to one win in 15 matches across all competitions.
The club are in talks with Glasner, and if he does leave then Thomas Frank would be among the candidates to replace him after the Dane was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur. Palace have also shown an interest in Andoni Iraola, the Bournemouth head coach, who is out of contract this summer.
Speaking on Friday, Glasner gave a vague reply when asked if he wanted to stay at Palace until the end of the season, when his contract expires. “Let’s see. What the future brings, we never know,” he said.
Asked what needed to happen for him to stay until the summer, he said: “Football, it’s easy. As a manager, you are allowed to stay when the results are OK. [In recent] months, the results were not good, the performances were not consistently good.”
Glasner risked inflaming the situation further by telling the Palace fans who have turned on him they may be “punished” if they fail to stay humble. “People always forget what happened,” he said. “I was the same when we were very successful. I always said the most important thing is to stay humble, and it’s the same for the fans. Stay humble and never forget where you come from. If you are so critical in this situation and forgot where you came from, usually in life you get punished.”
He again raised the subject of his unhappiness over the sale of Marc Guéhi, his captain and centre back, to Manchester City as well as Eberechi Eze’s move to Arsenal last summer. While Guéhi was not replaced, Palace boosted their attacking options by signing Brennan Johnson for £35 million, Jorgen Strand Larsen for up to £48 million and Evann Guessand on loan from Aston Villa but a proposed sale of Jean-Philippe Mateta to AC Milan collapsed because of the player’s knee injury.
Strand Larsen is one of the players Palace brought in during the transfer window
FILIP FILIPOVIC/GETTY IMAGES
“I am just not good enough to replace the players we sold, I am just not good enough to integrate the new players to play in the same way we did,” Glasner said. “And I am not good enough that we can cope with the schedule.”
Palace are at risk of losing high- profile players this summer in addition to Mateta’s expected sale. There is interest in Adam Wharton and Maxence Lacroix, while Daichi Kamada and Jefferson Lerma are out of contract, although the club have an option to extend the latter’s deal by one season. Palace had agreed to sell Eddie Nketiah for £27 million to West Ham United before the striker suffered a hamstring injury.
Glasner said Palace’s success has made his players a target. Over the past 18 months, they have also sold Michael Olise and Joachim Andersen.
“I just feel — and it’s part of success — like many of them think they have to move on,” Glasner said. “A few are maybe looking more at where they will play next year than where they are playing right now. This is part of success. We already had players who wanted to move, they felt that Crystal Palace was not the right place anymore. These are never good circumstances.”
Glasner criticised the club after a 2-1 defeat away to Sunderland last month but patched things up before he then committed to staying for the rest of the season. On Thursday night he was taunted with chants of “sacked in the morning” by travelling fans — less than a year after he delivered the FA Cup.
“After a game like [Thursday’s], it takes a little bit of time, even for me, to bring back the positivity and the energy to the group,” Glasner said. “It’s a very challenging situation. I take responsibility for everything.”
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Glasner has a history of emotional outbursts and has been happy to say if he feels let down by a club in the transfer window. He clashed with club chiefs at the end of his tenures at Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt, leaving both before the end of his contract.
Palace are eight points clear of the relegation zone and host the Premier League’s bottom club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, on Sunday. There are few obvious options to take over as caretaker manager should Glasner leave. Paddy McCarthy, the assistant coach, was in caretaker charge against Arsenal in March 2023 after the sacking of Patrick Vieira. In recent weeks Palace have been linked with Iñigo Pérez, whose Rayo Vallecano side finished eighth in La Liga last season and qualified for European football for the second time in their history.
In 2024, Kieran McKenna was Palace’s preferred choice but he decided to stay at Ipswich Town, who were targeting promotion from the Championship, which they achieved.
Meanwhile, Palace have been fined £50,000 after supporters held up a derogatory banner depicting the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, with forward Morgan Gibbs-White. The banner was displayed during a 1-1 Premier League draw at home to Forest in August. Palace denied the misconduct charge.
Crystal Palace v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Sunday, 2pm
TV Sky Sports Plus